Rafael Probst, Gaspare Lo Curto, Gerardo Ávila, Anna Brucalassi, Bruno Canto Martins, Izan de Castro Leão, Massimiliano Esposito, Jonay González Hernández, Frank Grupp, Theodor Hänsch, Ronald Holzwarth, Hanna Kellermann, Florian Kerber, Olaf Mandel, Antonio Manescau , Luca Pasquini, Eszter Pozna, Rafael Rebolo, José Renan de Medeiros, Sebastian Stark, Tilo Steinmetz, Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, Thomas Udem, Josefina Urrutia, Yuanjie Wu
We report on the installation of a laser frequency comb (LFC) at the HARPS spectrograph, which we characterize relative to a second LFC that we had brought to HARPS for testing. This allowed us for the first time to probe the relative stability of two independent astronomical LFCs over an extended wavelength range. Both LFCs covered the spectral range of HARPS at least from 460 to 690 nm. After optimization of the fiber coupling to HARPS to suppress modal noise, a relative stability of the two LFCs in the low cm/s range was obtained. In combination with the results of our four earlier LFC test campaigns on HARPS, the available data now cover a time span of more than six years.
We present a re-engineered version of the laser frequency comb that has proven a few-cm/s calibration repeatability
on the HARPS spectrograph during past campaigns. The new design features even better performance
characteristics. The newly arranged oscillator, filter cavities and fiber injection for spectral broadening allow
robust long term operation, controlled from a remote site. Its automation features enable easy operation for
non-experts. The system is being prepared for installation on the HARPS spectrograph in fall of 2014, and will
subsequently become available to the astronomical community.
We demonstrate the generation of broad spectra with a flat intensity distribution from originally highly structured supercontinua, obtained with femtosecond pulses in a photonic crystal fiber. This is accomplished by truncating the spectra at a constant level using a liquid crystal based spatial light modulator. The technique is useful for astronomical spectrograph calibration using frequency combs, where it allows to equalize the optical power of the calibration lines. This enables an improved calibration accuracy by maximizing each line’s signal-to-noise ratio.
The laser frequency comb, with its extreme precision, opens a new window for high precision spectroscopy for current
facilities, as well as for the ELT's. We report on the latest performance of the laser frequency comb obtained in combination
with the HARPS spectrograph, which allowed calibration with cm/sec repeatability. The laser frequency comb system
developed is described. Details of its laboratory set-up, characterization and integration with HARPS are shown. The results
of the recent test campaigns are presented, showing excellent performance in terms of repeatability as well as wavelength
coverage. Preliminary on sky data and next activities to integrate such a system in HARPS are presented.
Laser frequency combs (LFC) provide a direct link between the radio frequency (RF) and the optical frequency
regime. The comb-like spectrum of an LFC is formed by exact equidistant laser modes, whose absolute optical
frequencies are controlled by RF-references such as atomic clocks or GPS receivers. While nowadays LFCs
are routinely used in metrological and spectroscopic fields, their application in astronomy was delayed until
recently when systems became available with a mode spacing and wavelength coverage suitable for calibration
of astronomical spectrographs. We developed a LFC based calibration system for the high-resolution echelle
spectrograph at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT), located at the Teide observatory, Tenerife, Canary
Islands. To characterize the calibration performance of the instrument, we use an all-fiber setup where sunlight
and calibration light are fed to the spectrograph by the same single-mode fiber, eliminating systematic effects
related to variable grating illumination.
The Echelle spectrograph FOCES,1 that was operated at the 2.2m Calar Alto telescope between 1995 and 2009
was moved to the laboratories of Munich University Observatories and is being as a test bed for a number of
different stability issues related to high precision radial velocity spectroscopy.
We utilize FOCES to study spectrograph stability, illumination stability and fiber transport stability.
Results from temperature and pressure stabilization are presented with this paper. We will show, that we
reach the requirements set by our model analysis approach presented in [2]. Peak to valley mid term stability of
temperature and pressure is as good as 0.002K and 0.02hPa.
Christian Parthey, Arthur Matveev, Janis Alnis, Axel Beyer, Randolf Pohl, Katharina Predehl, Thomas Udem, Nikolai Kolachevsky, Michel Abgrall, Daniele Rovera, Christophe Salomon, Philippe Laurent, Theodor Hänsch
We present a measurement of the 1S-2S transition frequency in atomic hydrogen by two-photon spectroscopy
yielding f1S-2S = 2 466 061 413 187 035 (10) Hz corresponding to a fractional frequency uncertainty of 4.2×10-15.
The result presents a more than three times improvement on the previous best measurement.
An Yb-based 78-MHz repetition rate fiber-amplified frequency comb is used to investigate the power scaling
limitations of a standard-design bow tie high-finesse enhancement cavity for XUV generation. With a Xenon
gas jet in the 22-μm-radius focus, the 200-fs intra-cavity circulating pulse reaches a maximum of 20 kW of time-averaged
power. A novel cavity design is presented, conceived to overcome the observed enhancement limitations
and offering the prospect of few-nm high-power high-harmonic generation. Several applications which come into
reach for the first time are discussed.
The Echelle spectrograph FOCES,1 that was operated at the 2.2m Calar Alto telescope between 1995 and 2009
will be used as a test bed for a number of different stability issues related to high precision radial velocity
spectroscopy.
We utilize FOCES to study spectrograph stability, illumination stability and fiber transport stability.
The layout of this laboratory experiment will be presented in this paper together with the required and
desired spectrograph stability with respect to both pressure and temperature. We will present technical concepts
how to reach our stabilization goal as well as first results from the spectrograph thermal stabilization efforts.
We present the first stringent tests of a novel calibration system based on a laser frequency comb (LFC) for radial
velocity measurements. The tests were obtained with the high resolution, optical HARPS spectrograph. Photon noise
limited repeatability of 9 cm s-1 was obtained, using only little more than one of 72 echelle orders. In the calibration
curve CCD inhomogeneities showed up and could be calibrated, which were undetectable with previous Th-Ar
calibrations. To obtain an even higher repeatability and lower residuals, a larger spectral bandwidth is necessary. An
improved version of the LFC is currently under development. The results of the latest tests will be presented.
In the last six years, thanks to the very high radial velocity precision of the HARPS spectrograph, it was possible to
detect 21 out of the 30 super-Earth (extrasolar planets masses below 20 times the mass of the Earth) discovered up to
date. The radial velocity precision of the instrument is estimated around 80 cm/s on a single measurement.
The main instrumental limitations are the wavelength calibration and the stability of the light injection. We address both
factors and present the results of recent tests on the HARPS spectrograph.
We have identified the laser frequency comb as the ideal wavelength calibrator, due to the width, density and flux of the
lines, and to its intrinsic stability. The results from the recent tests that we performed on HARPS are encouraging.
The accurate guiding of the telescope is critical to maintain a stable light distribution at the injection stage, where the
light is sent into the spectrograph entrance fiber. To pursue this goal we are testing a secondary guiding system which is
able to apply the guiding corrections twenty times faster than the primary guiding system.
While being the most precise measurement tool in physics, high precision laser spectroscopy is still limited to
wavelengths in the range between the infrared and the near ultraviolet. The generation of XUV frequency combs might
be a route to extend optical frequency metrology into extreme ultraviolet (XUV) spectral region where many elements
have fundamental transitions. The method of choice for XUV frequency comb generation has been cavity-assisted high
harmonic generation, where an infrared frequency comb is converted into the XUV inside a femtosecond enhancement
cavity at the full repetition rate of the oscillator. Our recent efforts have been directed towards a significant improvement
of the average power of XUV combs. To this end, we experimentally investigated the process of non-collinear high
harmonic generation (NCHHG) and proved it to be useful as a combined method for efficient generation and outcoupling
of XUV radiation. Also, we developed a high repetition rate single-pass amplifier which has the potential to boost the
available power for intracavity HHG.
Photon sources for multi-photon entanglement experiments are commonly based on the process of spontaneous
parametric down conversion. Due to the probabilistic photon production, such experiments suffer from low multiphoton
count rates. To increase this count rate, we present a novel SPDC pump source based on a femtosecond
UV enhancement cavity that increases the available pump power while maintaining a high repetition rate of
80MHz. We apply the cavity as photon source for realizing symmetric, multi-partite entangled Dicke states,
which are observed with a high rate and high fidelity. We characterize the observed Dicke states of up to six
photons using efficient tools exploiting the state's symmetries.
Since its first light in 2003, the HARPS radial velocity spectrograph (RVS) has performed exquisitely well on the 3.6m
ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory (Chile). It now routinely exhibits a measurement noise of 0.5 m/s or 1.7 10-9 on a
relative scale. Despite innovative work by Lovis and colleagues [14] to improve the accuracy obtained with the
calibration lamps used, there is evidence that still better performance could be achieved by using more stable wavelength
standards. In this paper, we present two methods are aim at overcoming the shortcoming of present day calibrators and
that could satisfy the need for a cm/s -level calibrator like we are planning on using on the 2nd generation instruments at
the VLT and on the ELT instrumentation. A temperature-stabilized Fabry-Perot interferometer has the promise of being
stable to a few cm/s and has very uniform line levels and spacings, while a laser comb has already achieved a precision
better than 15 cm/s, despite using only one of the 72 orders of the spectrographs.
We describe in detail an optical clockwork based on a 1 GHz repetition rate femtosecond laser and silica microstructure optical fiber. This system has recently been used for the absolute frequency measurements of the Ca and Hg+ optical standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The simplicity of the system makes it an ideal clockwork for dividing down high optical frequencies to the radio frequency domain where they can readily be counted and compared to the existing cesium frequency standard.
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